Protogenes

Protogenes was another painter whom even the slightest
sketch cannot afford to pass over in silence. He was
born at Caunus in southwestern Asia Minor and flourished
about the same time as
Apelles. We read of his
conversing with the philosopher
Aristotle (died 322
B.C.), of whose mother he painted a portrait, and of his
being engaged on his most famous work, a picture of a
Rhodian hero, at the time of the siege of Rhodes by
Demetrius (304 B.C.). He was an extremely painstaking
artist, inclined to excessive elaboration in his work.
Apelles, who is always represented as of amiable and
generous character, is reported as saying that
Protogenes was his equal or superior in every point but
one, the one inferiority of Protogenes being that he did
not know when to stop. According to another anecdote
Apelles, while profoundly impressed by Protogenes's
masterpiece, the Rhodian hero above referred to,
pronounced it lacking in that quality of grace which was
his own most eminent merit.[1]
There are still other anecdotes, which give an
entertaining idea of the friendly rivalry between these
two masters, but which do not help us much in imagining
their artistic qualities. As regards technique, it seems
likely that both of them practiced principally "tempera"
painting, in which the colors are mixed with yolk of
eggs or some other sticky non-unctuous medium.[2]
Both Apelles and Protogenes are said to have written
technical treatises on the painter's art.